I’m a bit excited about the Christmas Book Sale going on over at Self-Publishing-Coach.com, partly because my book, WILLOWTREE, is one of the books included in the sale, and partly because of all the savings being offered on other books! There are over 60 books from multiple genres that are listed forfree or reduced price during the days of the sale – December 13th through the 15th, 2012 – AND the folks over at Self-Publishing-Coach.com are going to be giving one lucky reader a $25 Amazon gift card that they can use to get even more books for themselves or to give as gifts this holiday season.Besides my book, authors such as Congressman Joe Pitts, Dr. Minette Riordan, and international speaker and bestselling author Janet Perez Eckles are just a few of the names that readers will see on the books that are included in this sale. The books range from romance novels, to business strategy and are from both self published and traditionally published authors. There are publishing, marketing, and other books for authors from Shelly Hitz, Heather Hart, and Amber Polo.

KINDLE SELECT YES OR NO?The work and antipation, and finally the big Friday The 13th Kindle Free Promotion isover. 13 mystery authors got together for this Kindle Select e-book giveaway. Aconservative estimate is nearly, and possibly more than 200,000 of our freebies weredownloaded on Friday and Saturday. As a new and unknown author, my book,Willowtree had 8,596 downloads in the two days. I was fortunate to tag along with thegroup of better known writers with many books and fans. This will be a huge benefit to me in visibility and future sales.One direct beneficial outcome of giving Willowtree as a freebie was it's appearance onAmazon's Top 100 Lists. I watched it rise from nowhere on Friday morning to #4 on the Free Contemporary Fiction List by Saturday evening. Also to #8 on the Free Mystery and Thriller List, and #20 in the Free Kindle Store. Of course, I was only on the lists while my book was being offered free. I assume the lists generated a lot of the downloads, since bargain book hunters check these lists often.Why give away so many books? First, without the free promotion, most of thosethousands of e-book readers would not even know about my book. Second, the exposure from being on the Kindle lists and from all of the articles mentioning our promotion is free advertising. And, I am already seeing e-mails, Tweets, and other posts in groups, blogs, and on Facebook mentioning my book. I expect some reviews will be coming. Also, in this program authors will receive royalties when the books are borrowed from the new owners.So, I think giving Amazon exclusivity to distribute Willowtree for 90 days and offering itfree for 5 of them will turn out to be quite beneficial for me in terms of exposure, future sales, and confidence. Whether I continue in the program, is to be decided. I have no problem with the program, and Amazon is still my number one means of distribution. There are however, advantages to being with other channels, like Smashwords.I wish to thank the other dozen writers who pulled me with them in the 13/13/13experience. It was the bright idea of Stacy Juba, a tireless worker and beautiful person, who happens to have written a bunch of great books in various genres. The others who unselfishly contributed much time and effort are: Debra Lee, Keri Knutson, Maryann Miller, Timothy Hallinon, Bill Shepard, Jean Henry Mead, R J McDonnell, Joanna Slan, Gerrie Ferris Finger, Alina Adams, and Bonnie Hill. All are accomplished authors and their work deserves a look. I hope soon to have links to these fine writers on my "Recommendations" page.Now to get back to work on my Book Two, Stinger Maguire. I hear the best way to push Book One is to have a Two, then a Three, then...

13 free e-books by 13 authors on Friday the 13th of April.A dozen authors and I have joined together for a huge promo event for our Kindle Select books. We are offering e-books free on Friday, April 13. You will probably run into some of our ads or articles on the web or in a newspaper from now until the 13th.We are mystery and romance writers, some of which have been published by Dutton, Dell, Avon, MIra, and St Martin's. I am pleased and honored to be included with them for this event. Kindlers can download all 13 if they wish. Mark your calendars and bookmark the link. Tell your friends. Several books will also be free on the 14th, in case anyone be celebrating other events on Friday.The link to an Amazon page listing all the books is: http://amzn.to/GUnuf1

I have offered "Willowtree" free on previous occasions and have had over a thousand downloads, a lot for me, but not for better known writers. So, this will be some good exposure. I hope folks will take advantage of this offer to find some new authors they like. Like, Stacy Juba, a very talented and versatile writer. She has written adult mysteries and romance novels, as well as young adult and children's books. Stacy has spearheaded this 13-13 promotion. We other 12 admire both her writing and promotional skills.

13 free books.This is no April Fools joke.Good luck on April 1, and especially on the 13th.

KDP Select:I enrolled the e-book version of Willowtree in Amazon’s KDP Select on March 1 for 90days. That means I had to remove it from other sites it is offered for sale. There are pros and cons of doing this, which is why I studied other authors views and experiences with KDP Select before deciding on this 90 day experiment. For those who do not know what it is, KDP Select is, briefly, a program for Kindle Prime members to get many e-books from the kindle library free, or at reduced cost. It also allows members to borrow books from others. A pool of funds from the program is split monthly among participating authors with sales. Since my book is in the not-best-seller catagory, I am using this as a publicity campaign, getting the title at least visible to the thousands of Prime members. Prime members can get it free right now.

Smashwords:I had to remove Willowtree from Smashwords because of the exclusivity of KDP Select, one of the cons. I love Smashwords, and have actually sold more e-books there than at Amazon. Perhaps the biggest reason for Amazon requiring the book be their exclusive, is the competition from Smashwords. Smash is not taking it lying down, they have recently announced that their books will be listed at Baker and Taylor, which is a big step forward. That allows their e-books to be available through blio, an e-reading app packed withmany new computers and devices. Also e-books will find their way into libraries much easier through B&T.Smashwords is also holding a “Read An E-book Week(3/11-3/17).” Authors may enrolltheir books, discounted, for some good exposure and possible sales. I love Smashwords and, barring stupendous results in KDP Select, will return to the fold.